On Friday it was Mr. BuBakes' birthday and so it was a great opportunity for me to try out one of the (many) cakes I have been aching to make for a while.

You may have seen a picture of this cake doing the rounds lately on all sorts of social media site and blogs:

I think it makes everyone smile - probably due to the cheekiness of the piggies' behinds poking out from the 'mud', it also looks (in my opinion) positively scrummy!

So on Friday I set about to create my BuBakes version of this.

I had made my fondant pigs a few weeks before to ensure they dried out, unfortunately I forgot to take photos of this stage, but I will make some again soon and ensure I post the pictures. When making fondant decorations in advance I sit them in a clean, thick cardboard box on greaseproof paper. I then leave this in a cool place. It allows the pieces to dry out while protecting them and keeping them clean and safe.

On Friday morning started with my chocolate cake recipe to make two cakes. I think you could probably make it with different flavoured cakes, but I felt that there was so much chocolate elsewhere on the cake that a contrasting flavour may clash a little. Plus chocolate with chocolate orange frosting, and chocolate orange ganache, is a sure fire winner!

I sandwiched the two together and coated the outside of the cake with lashings of chocolate orange frosting. To this frosting I stuck the KitKats to form the barrel shape, I'd recommend doing this in a cool room, as I found that pressing the KitKats against the cake left fingermarks on the KitKats as it got warmer - I tried to make sure I only pressed where I knew the ribbon would sit.

Then it was time for the fun part - making the ganache.

Ganache seems scary to so many people, but as long as you understand the nature of the ingredients and the temperature it really doesn't need to be too scary.

First I decided that I wanted a thick ganache that would pour thickly and then set, so I opted for the 1:1 ratio. This meant I needed exactly the same weight of cream and chocolate. I cut up the chocolate very small to help the melting process, and then started to heat the cream.

The cream only needs to get to the point of steaming, not boiling, and should then be poured over the chocolate in a separate vessel. It should be left for a minute and then gently stirred. Be careful not to stir it too much as you will incorporate bubbles into the ganache which are difficult to get rid of. Also do not put this mixture back on the heat.

If you do have bubbles in your ganache bang (or tap!) the bowl/jug on the side to help the bubbles rise to the top. You will be left with a lovely creamy shiny mixture (that smells divine!)

Next comes the trickiest bit, waiting...

You will want to keep checking to see how set the ganache is, but you really have to hold back. You may also (if you are anything like me) want to pour the ganache onto your cake as you will have everything ready and waiting, however once again restraint is key. If you pour before the ganache is thick enough it will slip between the KitKats and you won't get the sharp effect you are no doubt hoping for.

After about 30 seconds you can place your piggies into the ganache and they will happily sit in place. This is another reason that you need to wait for the ganache to thicken, as if it is too thin your pigs will sink - which nobody wants!

I found at this point that my 'sitting pig' was starting to lean backwards so I rested a skewer on the barrel to help him prop up while the chocolate set around him.

As you can see I have tied a ribbon around the barrel at this stage. Not only does this look cute, but it also covers the KitKat print, and most importantly it holds the KitKats in place as the cake sets. I love the way it means you can change the colour or print of the ribbon to personalize the cake a little too, to suit the recipient.

The cake was then moved to my cake show area (where people get to view their cake when picking up from me) and there it stood happily until it was time to present it to Mr. BuBakes.

Mr. BuBakes loved the cake, and one of the best things about it was that it being his cake I actually got to have a slice of one of my creations! Now I know I'm biased but it was rather tasty...

A couple of discoveries when we actually went to use this cake - there isn't a particularly great or stable place to put a candle; but on the flip side, the KitKats give a great bit of guidance for where to slice for even pieces.

I have seen some of these cakes using Chocolate fingers too; I think that may be next on the list to try... Or maybe Matchmakers... Or Micado... Any other suggestions?!

I'm off to steal another slice and have it with a cuppa, if there are any parts of this that I have left out or aren't clear then do just give me a shout and I'll be happy to help.

This morning I had the pleasure of completing a Lego cake for a 6 year olds birthday. The wonderful thing about working with celebration cakes as well as cupcakes is that I get to do some more masculine designs among all the usual girlie designs. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE making sugar flowers and working with 'all things fabulous' for my ladies, but sometimes it's nice to mix it up.

Or so I thought...

When starting this particular cake I knew I needed it to be clean cut, with definition and bold shapes. My problem was that I hand't realised just how tough this could be. Sometimes the plain and seemingly simple decorations can be the hardest to get right, as there is nowhere to hide. I think in total this took about 17 hours, but the time and concentration was well worth it when I got to hand over the cake to the birthday boy himself, and I could see how much he liked it.

The fact that the first question he asked was how I had managed to get the hands right made my day. The smallest detail really does make the biggest impact sometimes.

So, here it is - The Lego cake...

This has got me thinking more about grown up boys' cakes, and considering some new flavours to try out in an attempt to make cupcakes more man friendly. So far I have maple and bacon, whisky, and Guinness with chocolate. Any other flavour combinations out there that you think could work?

A good friend of mine has a daughter who is about to turn 2 and has an allergy to eggs. I decided that it was time to dust off my superhero cape, turn it round into and apron, and test out lots of eggless recipes. I was determined to make sure I discovered a good enough recipe for this little girl to have a birthday cake. I hadn’t baked without eggs before so was slightly unsure what I was initially aiming for. The first few batches I tried all seemed a bit stodgy, and almost brownie like. I then tried a recipe that relied on a lot of golden syrup, which led to an amazing taste, but it didn't rise. I tried changing my baking powder, whisking my sugar and butter/milk (depending on the recipe) for an extra few minutes before adding any flour. I went out to get an oven thermometer and checked that my oven was running correctly (for the record it was out, so that was well worth checking...) and I tried baking on different levels in the oven. On my 9th(!) attempt I used a recipe that was recommended to me when I was at the point of despair, and it seemed I finally had the result I needed. After beating the batter it was silky, smooth and super shiny.

I was hopeful as the cake slid into the oven (bottom shelf) and I waited (mainly in the British Bake Off "stealth pose”) patiently for the timer to sound. The cake took a few 'snoozes' until it was ready to come out (clean skewer and a bouncy top) and if you can excuse the cracking on the top, the sponge looked moist and really rather scrummy.

I have taken to completing a 2-layer method of icing my cakes now; I complete the initial layer with my buttercream and keep that as a rough crumb layer. I find that as long as I always scrape my knife in a spare bowl before dipping back into the frosting, I keep the main bulk of frosting free of crumbs.

Then after this first coating I wait an hour or two before then adding a thin second layer of frosting. This gives a smoother finish and I can really see the difference when I add my fondant icing.

The theme I had chosen for the cake was The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. It’s a book I believe every child should grow up with, and I know it is a story the birthday girl reads with her dad.

I drew up various designs for the decoration, each incorporating various approaches. These included fondant marbling techniques, making 3D figures or using other various props; but I decided to keep it as simple as possible. I wanted it to be suitable for a 2 year old, and to keep the images clear so that she could recognize them. I started with the caterpillar, and my aim was to have him as the focus on top of the cake and then add the items he ate around the side (complete with nibble hole).

I have been using the Clikstix cutters for my fondant letters and am currently debating whether to continue with these for other lettering designs or try another brand (any recommendations welcome!). I then decided that rather than having a traditional '2' cut out of icing, I would create one using dots to represent the holes in each of the items the caterpillar had eaten through. I took the colours from the caterpillar for the lettering and the number 2, and I think it tied together quite nicely... Do let me know what you think :)

One thing I am sure of, that this was my favourite birthday cake to deliver to date. Only 365 days until I can deliver her next one!